Ariella
by Alexis Diamond
Summary: A wild, beautiful woman meets a hunter. When Lord Bassoneaux finds out that Jace is meeting with Ariella in private, he captures her and threatens her for information.Can Jace and Ariella ever be together? And how can she escape the tribe's fury?


Prologue:

He knelt in the long grass, feeling the wind push against his face. Heavy on his arms, he knocked his bow quietly, never removing his eyes from the old buck grazing in the quivering moonlight. Its belly was fat in anticipation of winter and its antlers had begun to shed the precious velvet that would usually cover them. It looked so serene, like a midnight statue. The grass kissed the man's legs and arms, urged by the soft breeze. He raised his bow to eyelevel, holding the arrow steady between his fingers.

Licking his lips and thinking about rich venison, he steadied his arm and took a breath. The buck moved his head to the other side, nibbling on more pleasing grass and blocking the arrows path to its heart. The man settled down to wait.

He had been following the deer for a few days now and his rations were rather low. If he missed this shot, he'd have no choice but to go back to the Village empty-handed. Most hunters came back without a kill, since most refused to go past the lightly wooded jungle where legends of witches and beasts roamed the dark trees. The deer had led him deeper into the forest than he had liked, and he did not trust his knowledge of edible plants with the foreign leaves and sweet-smelling grasses that surrounded him now. He was nearly in the heart of the jungle.

He stole a glance up at the trees around him, dripping in leaves and flowers bathed in moonlight. _Is there really some ancient witch watching me now?_ He doubted it. Many hunters believed in the legends told by veterans, but not him. He prided himself in his un-superstitious beliefs and his courage to hunt deeper in the jungle. Even those who did hunt usually held a rabbits foot, or some lucky charm. He'd been hunting for nearly thirty years, and he had never seen any scary women or huge shadowy beasts. He glanced back at his prey, and closed down his thoughts until all his focus was on that one spot, just below the neckline. He imagined his arrow plunging into the thick, furry hide of the old buck.

Suddenly the wind was absent from his face, instead breezing through his hair, blowing in the opposite direction. Downhill. The deer looked up, staring directly at him, the direction of his smell. It's legs bent to spring, and in a flash of panic, the man let go of the string, letting the arrow fly. It sang as it cut through the air, burying itself in a tree trunk, where the deer had been only moments ago. The deer bounded through the trees, quickly leaving the man behind.

Cussing colourfully, the man jumped up and raced after the deer, knocking another arrow. He caught glimpses of a tanned leg and a white tail as he tried to catch the buck. Even though it was old, it was still faster than him. He used the _swishing _leaves and rustling ferns as a guide as he ran deeper into the jungle.

Without warning, his foot caught on a root and he pitched forward, rolling down a hill. He bounced off a tree and slid farther down. He closed his eyes as his shoulder and legs fell into bumps and rocks, bruising his skin hard. Trying to grab something, he threw his hands out desperately. They hit trunks and fruitlessly pulled at thin roots and grass that broke in his hands. He began to slow, sliding instead rolling.

Finally at a stop, he tried to stand up. He felt uneven ground under his feet and his arms throbbed as he wobbled, feeling as though he was on the edge of a cliff. The world tipped as his knees buckled under him and he fell and suddenly there was no ground beneath him; for a few terrifying seconds, with his heart in his throat, he fell, before his shoulder hit a rocky wall and his left leg came under him at an unnatural angle; with an extremely painful _snap_ he landed on slippery ground.

Pain spiralled through his legs as he glanced up and saw a spinning, starry sky, so far away...

He had fallen into some kind of a gorge and had landed on his left leg. It was probably broken. He tried to wiggle his toes and was rewarded with a fierce pain that clamped down on his head. He felt warm blood running down his shoulder where his skin had been torn open by the rocky gorge wall. Vines crawled down over the rock like snakes. The man closed his eyes, trying to minimize the pain.

He opened his eyes and leaned back against the wall. Using his arms, he grabbed his leg and tried to pull it out from under him.

But the pain was too much and the stars were too bright and a deep, heavy exhaustion rolled over him as his world blinked to darkness. His last thought was that he was dead.

Then it was only black...

1


End file.
